Released in 2006, The Fox and The Hound 2 is the Direct-to-DVD midquel to Disney's The Fox and the Hound.
Set during Tod and Copper's childhood, Copper is worried that he's no good as a hunting dog. When a county fair rolls into town, Copper and Tod wander off to see the sights the fair has to offer. There they come across "The Singin' Strays", a band of singing hounddogs who are hoping to be picked up by a talent scout. When Dixie, the diva of the band, leaves after an argument with the band's leader Cash, Copper is picked up as her replacement. In order to stay with the band, Tod lies and claims that Copper is a stray. But their friendship is soon strained when Copper starts paying less to attention to him and more on his role in the band. Given the film's status as a midquel, you can probably guess the outcome of this conflict.
This film provides examples of:
- Accidental Hug: Cash and Dixie accidentally get pulled into a hug at the end from their owner's enjoyment at winning over the approval of the talent scout for the Singing Strays.
- Adaptation Dye-Job: Abigail, Widow Tweed's cow, was a grayish-brown color in the original film, yet here she's inexplicably pure white.
- Anthropomorphic Shift: The characters in the original film were perfectly average for the most part. This makes the much more anthropomorphic Singing Strays stand out.
- Anti-Villain: Dixie. While she's the primary instigator of the film's conflict, she's motivated predominantly by her ego, jealousy and resentment at being replaced by Copper rather than outright being a bad person; showing notable remorse and trying to make amends when she realises how much harm she's caused with her actions.
- Zelda, likewise. While she's much more dour and outright rude, her motivations for her actions are out of loyalty and to help her friend return to the job she loves.
- Art Evolution: The sequel has a more saturated color palette than the original movie that goes with its Lighter and Softer direction.
- Beauty Equals Goodness: Downplayed with Dixie. Although she's the one mainly behind the film's conflict, her beautiful looks are a good early indicator that she's not truly bad beyond being bitter and jealous at being replaced. Played straight when she ultimately pulls a Heel–Face Turn.
- Breather Episode: Being a midquel set during Tod's and Copper's childhood and before they reached adulthood which will be their dark age, it's considered to be this for the two titular animals as the film focuses on their cuteness of their friendship and the cartoonish hijinks they find themselves in. Also, Slade and Chief, the antagonists of the original film who are regulated to being each a Villain of Another Story in this midquel, have more Laughably Evil moments then in their debuts and are even Go-Karting with Bowser with Widow Tweed and Tod.
- Cats Are Mean: Zelda. While her reasons for what she does are sympathetic (stated above), she's very grumpy and rude, and states her intention to make Copper do the chores if he gets into the band.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Big Mama, along with Dinky, Boomer and Squeaks are not present nor mentioned.
- Coconut Meets Cranium: Apple variant. Amos shoots his gun in surprise, and the force makes an apple fall on his head.
- Comfort Food: Played for laughs when Dixie is initially fired from the band. She's seen sadly and angrily chowing on a big bowl of kibbles much like a human would go through candy, which Zelda remarks on.Zelda: Why eat 'em, Dix? Might as well just slap 'em on your hips.
- Crowd Song: "Good Doggie, No Bone", performed by Tod, Dixie, Zelda, and a whole entourage of farm animals.
- Denser and Wackier: While the original film had its cartoony moments (especially with scenes involving Boomer, Dinky, and Sqeaks), most of the story had a grounded and melancholy tone to it. This sequel on the other hand features more cartoony slapstick and more over-the-top scenarios utilizing said slapstick.
- Ears as Hair: Dixie's ears are the same shade of reddish brown as her pompadour, and the two together make her look like she's only got one long hairdo at a glance, not unlike Rita and Georgette.
- Fat, Sweaty Southerner in a White Suit: The talent scout Winchell Bickerstaff, who ends up being the designated Butt-Monkey in the second film.
- Go-Karting with Bowser: There would be times either Slade and Widow Tweed would bond in looking out for each other's pets or Chief and Tod would take a break from their chase just to both see with Copper joining them Slade enduring one misfortune after another.
- Gray Rain of Depression: Happens when Copper is fired from the Singing Strays and the Singing Strays leave Cash. Floyd even lampshades this by asking why it always rains when things go wrong.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Dixie gets jealous when she learns Copper is her replacement in the Singing Strays and sets out to ruin the competition out of revenge.
- Karmic Jackpot: After Dixie pulls her Heel–Face Turn and helps reunite the Singin' Strays after they break up — along with helping repair Todd and Copper's strained friendship — she's allowed back into the group. Their next performance at the diner is attended by a talent scout, who then helps them get their big break.
- Lighter and Softer: The tone sticks strictly to the sweetly tone of the first half of the original movie, with the bright colors and comical banter amped way up.
- Male Gaze: There's a noticeable amount of shots focusing directly on Dixie's body and curvaceous hindquarters. It's especially blatant in "Good Doggie, No Bone" and when she's arguing with Cash on the bus, where Dixie is reclining in the driver's seat
with her legs right up against the wheel. - Motor Mouth: One part of "We're In Harmony" turns out to be a whole verse of this, which eventually gets so fast that by the time they're done the Strays are out of breath.
- Noodle Incident: This bit as Cash and Dixie argue.
Cash: I swear Dixie, this is just like the time when you done...
Dixie: (stammers) Y-you better not bring that up!
Dixie: (stammers) Y-you better not bring that up!
- Plot-Mandated Friendship Failure: On two accounts. After the Singin' Strays' initial performance is sabotaged, on top of them finding out that Copper isn't actually a stray like he said, he's fired from the band — which in turn ends up splitting — on top of Copper and Tod's friendship already being affected by the former not being able to spend time with the latter (even though it's tame in comparison to latter one they would have when they grew up where it's more tragic and harsh as it involved Chief getting injured by accident in the original film). Fortunately, both band and companionships are eventually fixed.
- Pie in the Face:
- Tweed smashes a blueberry pie she just baked into Amos' face at the beginning of the movie. Then, Tweed runs into Amos at the fair with a pie to be judged.
- During the chaos at the carnival, a giant bell falls onto the stand of pies. They go flying into the air, and they all land on Winchell.
Amos: What could you do with that pie?Amos: Uh... I, uh... Woman's got spunk. I'll give her that. - Red Oni, Blue Oni: Dixie and Zelda have this dynamic going on in their scenes together. The more outgoing, excitable and diva-ish dog Dixie is the red, while the quieter, more dour and snarky cat Zelda is the blue.
- Replacement Goldfish: Dixie sees Copper as this when she quits the show and Copper takes her place.
- Running Gag: Whenever Cash’s band mates start talking to him all at once, he yells at them to sit.
- Shaking the Rump: Tod, Dixie, Zelda and the other animals do this during the song "Good Doggie, No Bone".
- Sequel Non-Entity: Despite being prominent characters in the original movie, Big Mama, Boomer, Dinky, and Squeaks the caterpillar make no appearances whatsoever here, even if they should be around at this point in time.
- Shout-Out: Dixie and Cash are respectively named after The Dixie Chicks and Johnny Cash; in turn doubling as meaningful names considering those musicians' involvement in Country Music.
- At one point, Zelda briefly mentions being an ex of one Thomas O'Malley.
- Shown Their Work: Tod can't sing because his species sounds like this.
- Slap-Slap-Kiss: Cash and Dixie's relationship is mainly like this, as they argue with one another enough that the other three members of the Strays just sit and watch without a hint of looking uncomfortable at the sight, and Granny Rose remarks that if Cash "disliked" Dixie anymore than he claimed they would have to get married. When they're first introduced, Cash also says Dixie has a voice like an angel with the looks to match, and even says "Gosh, I missed you," when he and Dixie finally make up at the end (helped along by a good bit of nuzzling and meaningful looks).
- Slapstick: Dixie and Zelda suffer their fair share of Amusing Injuries, with Dixie in particular getting hit in the butt by a loose floorboard, getting her muzzle caught in a closing bus door, and being caught on a runaway Ferris Wheel that inevitably crashes.
- Spotlight-Stealing Squad: "The Singin' Strays". So much focus was removed from Tod because of them (though considering part of the plot is Copper hanging out with them so much Tod feels abandoned, that was likely intentional).
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: The cricket that shows up to be chased by Copper and Todd throughout the movie has a very similar role to Squeaks the caterpillar from the original film. Both of them get chased by two characters during light-hearted hijinks and show up at several random points in their respective movies.
- Talks Like a Simile: Evoked, over and over and over again.
- A Truce While We Gawk: Near the start of the film, Chief stops chasing Tod when both notice Amos on the back of an out-of-control cow with a bucket on his head, and both watch, with Copper joining them, as it gets worse for him; after he throws off the bucket, a bee's nest takes its place. Seeing where he's heading all three say "Uh-oh" as Amos tosses the hive off, only to be thrown into a pig pen. And it continues for a few more seconds, as they all get "oh, no" expression right before Tweed adds insult to injury:Tweed: Well, as long as you're wasting my milk, you may as well have some pie to go along with it. (grabs a blueberry pie from the windowsill)Amos: What the dickens are you—(Pie in the Face)
- Villain of Another Story: Amos Slade and Chief, the two major antagonists of the first film, makes their appearances in this installment, however, are not the main focus this time around and are both treated as afterthoughts.
- Vomit Discretion Shot: While Tod and Copper ride a merry-go-round, the latter retches just as the horse they're on dips below the camera.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Big Mama, Dinky, Boomer and Squeaks are nowhere to be seen.
